So, I figured I could wait, and look up results, but as I have a few extra credits in GT5, I might as well run the numbers myself.

How much difference does fresh oil and a rebuilt engine make?

I'm taking a used 1971 'Cuda 440 Six Pack to Indy to find out.

First, stats when purchased:

384 Hp

480 lb torque

1576 Kg

Miles: 1,590.1

The way I'm testing is this: I line up at the pit road entrance on the front straight with an automatic transmission, no abs, no traction control. I then gun it off the line at an even second mark of total time, and race to the start finish line, where I pause. This gives me both time and speed at that point, along with my delay in hitting the pause button (aka, total time was 18.533, but next lap time was .225, so 18.308 is the real time.

First old oil, old engine:

18.308, speed of 107

Next, its time for an oil change:

Cost: 250 CR

Results:

18.255 speed of 109

So a SLIGHT improvement, but I can also say the top speed went up from 115 to 118, so its makes a difference.

Engine rebuild time!

Cost: 17,500 (!!!!!!)

First, HP is up to 403, and torque is to 504, so ther'es some difference right there lets see what the track has to say

Results:

18.014 Speed 109

Top speed up to 119

So your looking at between an oil change AND an engine rebuild, maybe a 5% difference... MAYBE. It seems like the acceleration was a little quicker with the oil and engine rebuild, but it may have been pretty minor.

Hey guys,
I'm working on getting a freelance Architectural and Landscape Architectural rendering gig going using a newish engine called Thea, and wanted you guys to look at a few of the component models I have so far. Let me know what you think. The car and bench are tweaked Sketchup components that I re-skinned, the trees are from Tree[d], which the exception of the pine, which someone shared in the Thea forums. The Stop sign is original, and the people are default SketchUp people, and I'm not sure if they are the way I am going to end up doing people or not.

I'm trying to get these set so anytime anyone needs a design with a maple rendered, I'm ready to plug this in.

First, the trees. I spend a LOT of time with these trying to get not just the right bark, the and the right shade of leaf, but the right translucency, as its what seems to give the leaves a look of life. The redbud was a real trick since when it is in bloom its a very skeletal structure, and is VERY pink, but at times it looked almost on fire.

Maple-

Ginko (Young)-

Redbud-

Next is the park bench. I used a Sketchup component, and tweaked the model SLIGHTLY, and reskinned it in thea.

The stop sign is the first piece I made 100% on my own, and I'm decently happy with. I have NO idea if you can get it to act like there is the reflective-prism film, so I just made it fairly reflective, but added a bumpmap so it doesn't reflect straight back like a mirror.

I'm pretty happy with my car. I got the model in Sketchup, and tweaked it to smooth some edges, add depth in areas like headlights, and then got the materials nailed down. The car here has its headlights off, but I do have two IES lights in the model so I can turn them on for night scenes.

Lastly, here is everything thrown together in one mish-mash. The key thing here is that the car, for instance, will never be the focal point of a model. so while as a stand alone you see the polys, when its in a model as a set piece, the fact that it reflects the model and sits so well really makes it an asset if you ask me... but I'm not asking me. I'm asking you. so let me know what you think!

If you like the look of the engine (This is unlicensed version, full will not have the water marks), check out TheaRender.com

I suppose I owe this post to altoidyoda and justsomedude899, along with a martini and a few High Life's.

I have been a semi-active member of the IGN community since around 2006, with a blog I started in 2007. I never posted regularly, as I suppose I'm to self conscious about my own writing abilities when I don't have a bit of a buzz going, but I followed many of the "big time" bloggers in the old system (Reillymonster, Fozzy, Altoidyoda, Justsomedude, nextgengamer, dillaweezer, teh_red_baron, etc), and commented enough that I like to think I had a familiar face at the least. I was excited to see the new MyIGN as I thought it would become a new iteration of the original blog community, but it seems that at least so far it is something more. I don't know if I think it is something better at this point, as it feels somehow, diluted, but it is what it is. Some of this may come from the fact that the old blogging tools were somewhat of a pain in the ass, and that meant that the only people blogging were people who really had something to say, and that made it a little more of a tight knit community. Its the same thing that makes your best friends often come from the WORST jobs, you suffered through the BS together, and managed to make it enjoyable. MyIGN is the easy job that was never hard, and paid decently. You make friends, but, from my experience, the friendships and comradeship just aren't as strong as they were back on the old blog system.

But, I think its time to try to make the move more official, so let me tell you about me. I started blogging here at IGN because, at the time, I was questioning my choice of profession. I, at that point, was all-but-thesis for my masters, and in a job with a small landscape architecture firm. The commute was murder, and I just wanted to be doing something different. I remember thinking about how AMAZING it would be to design games back in the 80's when I was playing BattleToads and Galaxy5000 on my NES with my best friend Josh. I moved away from that dream over time, first deciding engineering was the best outlet for my dual loves of creativity and science.

Then I took college physics and calculus. I then was looking for a new direction. Luckily, I found landscape architecture. It is a little understood field that involves everything I love. On every project you need creativity to create a design that will inspire, scientific knowledge to know what soils will work with what plants, engineering to know what to put under and behind walls to keep them retaining soil instead of collapsing. And you are working not with "cold" materials like an architect does (No offense, believe me, I have often thought about going back for an M.Arch as well), but with the living earth and nature. And you aren't taming nature in some god-complex way, but working with nature. Trying to find ways to create a design that will look amazing both the day you install it, 30 years down the road when the trees finally are reaching maturity, and 50 years in when things want to get overgrown. Finding those balances, and designing so that nature will HELP the development of your design instead of hurting it is an amazing challenge. I also brought my LOVE of all things technological to the field, including a love of 3D Studio Max rendering and photoshop.

Now I am in a VERY different place. I am no longer in Chicago (Hello Queens, NY!), and, after getting laid-off in August of 2008, I have yet to find another position in the field. This has been a very sharply double edged sword. First, I realize that while, yes, I do LOVE videogames, I don't really want to be a developer- I just want to be a landscape architect. And yes, I had time (while working 30 hours a week at Best Buy) to create a new rendering style, combining the depth that photoshop gives with the life that hand line-work gets, and I am now learning Thea and Rhino. But it is really all in the effort to try to get that extremely illusive job that fits me, a non-entry level, non-mid-level person with 9 months experience in a

I suppose I owe this post to altoidyoda and justsomedude899, along with a martini and a few High Life's.

I have been a semi-active member of the IGN community since around 2006, with a blog I started in 2007. I never posted regularly, as I suppose I'm to self conscious about my own writing abilities when I don't have a bit of a buzz going, but I followed many of the "big time" bloggers in the old system (Reillymonster, Fozzy, Altoidyoda, Justsomedude, nextgengamer, dillaweezer, teh_red_baron, etc), and commented enough that I like to think I had a familiar face at the least. I was excited to see the new MyIGN as I thought it would become a new iteration of the original blog community, but it seems that at least so far it is something more. I don't know if I think it is something better at this point, as it feels somehow, diluted, but it is what it is. Some of this may come from the fact that the old blogging tools were somewhat of a pain in the ass, and that meant that the only people blogging were people who really had something to say, and that made it a little more of a tight knit community. Its the same thing that makes your best friends often come from the WORST jobs, you suffered through the BS together, and managed to make it enjoyable. MyIGN is the easy job that was never hard, and paid decently. You make friends, but, from my experience, the friendships and comradeship just aren't as strong as they were back on the old blog system.

But, I think its time to try to make the move more official, so let me tell you about me. I started blogging here at IGN because, at the time, I was questioning my choice of profession. I, at that point, was all-but-thesis for my masters, and in a job with a small landscape architecture firm. The commute was murder, and I just wanted to be doing something different. I remember thinking about how AMAZING it would be to design games back in the 80's when I was playing BattleToads and Galaxy5000 on my NES with my best friend Josh. I moved away from that dream over time, first deciding engineering was the best outlet for my dual loves of creativity and science.

Then I took college physics and calculus. I then was looking for a new direction. Luckily, I found landscape architecture. It is a little understood field that involves everything I love. On every project you need creativity to create a design that will inspire, scientific knowledge to know what soils will work with what plants, engineering to know what to put under and behind walls to keep them retaining soil instead of collapsing. And you are working not with "cold" materials like an architect does (No offense, believe me, I have often thought about going back for an M.Arch as well), but with the living earth and nature. And you aren't taming nature in some god-complex way, but working with nature. Trying to find ways to create a design that will look amazing both the day you install it, 30 years down the road when the trees finally are reaching maturity, and 50 years in when things want to get overgrown. Finding those balances, and designing so that nature will HELP the development of your design instead of hurting it is an amazing challenge. I also brought my LOVE of all things technological to the field, including a love of 3D Studio Max rendering and photoshop.

Now I am in a VERY different place. I am no longer in Chicago (Hello Queens, NY!), and, after getting laid-off in August of 2008, I have yet to find another position in the field. This has been a very sharply double edged sword. First, I realize that while, yes, I do LOVE videogames, I don't really want to be a developer- I just want to be a landscape architect. And yes, I had time (while working 30 hours a week at Best Buy) to create a new rendering style, combining the depth that photoshop gives with the life that hand line-work gets, and I am now learning Thea and Rhino. But it is really all in the effort to try to get that extremely illusive job that fits me, a non-entry level, non-mid-level person with 9 months experience in a field that was definitely hit by the recession, or even a contract gig doing a few renderings for a firm that maybe would mean I can stop working retail.

For the time being, however, here I am. I'm playing the few select games I have cash to spend for. I'm playing some of them on a 360 that my AMAZING former Best Buy coworkers in Chicago bought for me, and others on a PS3 I got on Metal Gear 4's midnight launch (which has since yellow lighted, and been replaced thanks to Best Buy's Black Tie Protection, minus all my saves), and a few on the Wii I bought on launch day. I listen to Beyond, Scoop, and Knockin' boots every week (Knockin' boots is the new Love-line), and Voice Chat on occasion (Matt and Bozon are still that podcast to me, and I can't get around that, sorry Craig and koopa-lings).

In terms of my gaming background, my first gaming memory is playing "alpiner" on a TI-99 back in the Early 90's on vacation in Duluth MN. I then played "Sopwith" on my Dad's PC in 1986ish (I'm 29), and soon graduated to an NES, complete with Power-Pad. I was instantly hooked as a Nintendo Fanboy. I stayed loyal all the way through the GameCube years (RE4, Metroid Prime, and Rouge Squadron were AMAZING), and it was only in 2005 when I finally got a non-nintendo system, the PS2. I got it for DDR, and stayed for the GT4, Burnout, and Guitar Hero. As I said, I now am lucky enough to have all three major systems, along with a DS and a PSP (2000). Metal Gear, inFamous, Uncharted, LBP, Mass Effect, Red Dead, Zelda, Endless Ocean, and No More Heros are my favorite franchises from this generation.

In the morning I have to learn another 100 pages of Rhino, and tweak fonts on my resume (welcome to the life of a designer who is under-employed), and my martini buzz is wearing off, so I'll leave this post at that. Hopefully you will see more of me, and with better news on the employment front soon. Until then, take the time to sit and listen to some good music. Seriously. Find some good headphones (throw the earbuds away, your Mom and Dad might have some decent stuff), put on a good CD (MP3's sound flat and bassy), I recommend Feel Good Ghosts by Cloud Cult, or Eraser by Thom York, and just LISTEN. Sit in a comfortable chair, put your phone down, and enjoy the music for what it is. An experience.

So far, I've spent a few hours on My IGN, partially on my PC, partially on my Droid. While it seems like there is a lot of promising aspects, there are some things that need to be addressed, in my opinion, before it can really work seamlessly.

First, I had some navigation issues while on my droid. Part of this is due to the fact that there is no app yet, so each page has to fully load, and as each page is encased by the normal IGN java-script frame, the loading times are MUCH bigger than they need to be.

Second, Everything seems just a little to hard to get to. To add games, I can add a game that is one of the current top 10 games within MyIGN, otherwise I have to go to the dedicated page for the game, wait for it to load, follow it, then come back into MyIGN to rate it. Why can I not rate it on the game page and have that link to MyIGN? Why can I not search for games to add within MyIGN, and follow a game from a list?

Its nice to see IGN using the Playstation idea of a list of ideas that the community can vote for, and that they plan on pulling the old blog network over to MyIGN, I just hope they do it in a way that allows for things like custom headers, email notification of blog posts, and blog listing (Newest blog, most popular, etc) like that currently seen on the blogs.

So far, I hope to put a lot of time in here, increasing my blogging, board presence, etc. But for the time being I'll be double posting my blogs so they don't get lost.